After reading Stephen Totilo’s article In Defense of Offense: Why We Gamers Shoot, which was featured in
the New York Times, I admittedly had
mixed reactions and feelings. In the article, Mr. Totilo, who is also the
editor-in-chief for the popular gaming website kotaku.com, explains why big
blockbuster games like Halo 4 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 are such a big
hit amongst the mainstream gaming community.
However, I found it odd that Mr. Totilo also failed to
address why it was exactly he had chosen to “defend” the appeal of shooter
games, and instead chose to use language that could give critics of these games
more (pardon the wordplay) ammunition. Shooting games are constantly “under
fire” as it were for promoting violence and glorifying war since rarely do such
games offer any other path besides “shoot and kill everything that’s trying to
do the same to you.”
